The new role of Education Scotland Associate (ESA) has been introduced in Education Scotland, drawing on the expertise of practitioners to contribute to educational policy, improvement and development, moving towards the aspiration of a teacher facing, profession led agency as recommended in Professor Ken Muir’s report ‘Putting Learners at the Centre: Towards a Future Vision for Scottish Education’.

This role will allow the associates to gain a national perspective of education, developing their system leadership as well as benefitting from additional high-quality professional learning.

About Education Scotland Associates

For this pilot, 18 senior leaders from across the Scottish education system have been recruited. This includes Depute Head Teachers, Headteachers and Quality Improvement Officers and Managers. Each person brings a wealth of leadership experience from across a range of sectors.

What Scotland Associates do

For this pilot, each Associate has approval from their current employer to complete up to 15 days with Education Scotland between September 2023 to March 2024, 10 of which will be working on project tasks.

Data and evidence will inform project working for the Education Scotland Associates. This will enhance the current teams in Education Scotland, bringing real-time, relevant experience and ensuring greatest impact for the work being undertaken.

Associates will be deployed according to their skills and experience, where they are able to add value to the system and based on careful analysis of need across the wider education system.

Each Associate will provide a written evaluative report at the end of their participation in the project as well as a personal reflection on their time as an Associate to help inform any future use of Associates for the new agency.